Re: Not so much a bug as a warning of new brute force attack
Aaron Merifield (amerifie@chat.carleton.ca)
Mon, 3 Jun 1996 12:37:59 EDT
Brett L. Hawn writes:
>
> Given a file full of usernames and the standard 'dict file' one can
>
> Solution:
>
> Implement random delay times, logging, and disconnection within the pop3
> daemom
Why not just change the system so that it wont accept a dictionary name as
a valid password. Six to eight characters and at least 1 or 2 numbers
would make it a little more difficult too.
The main way to crack password files seems to involve using dictionary
files (that you can easily get from the net) and using brute force to
compare the encrypted dictionary words to the encrypted passwords.
Therefore just dont allow dictionary words as passwords. Although the
number you can still make your own dictionary files of random characters,
the percentage of people that would even bother drops big time, IMO.
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Aaron Merifield
Carleton University
Graduated spring-95, B.Sc. Physics.
Department of Computer Mathematics, 3rd yr.
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E-MAIL: Amerifie@chat.carleton.ca
WEB-PAGE: http://chat.carleton.ca/~amerifie
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